Chapter Thirteen

Fiere flew us almost to the entrance, leaving us about a twenty-minute walk away. I expected him to drop us off then fly back. The longer he was in his dragon form, the more dangerous it was for him. None of us knew what would happen to him if he stayed too long in this form. He’d had the illness once and gotten over it, but there was nothing to stop him getting it again. 

He didn’t fly off though. He rounded behind a tree and shifted into his human form. I threw him a shawl I’d packed, which he wrapped around his middle.

“Shouldn’t you be going home?” I shouted across to him. 

He came over from the tree. “I just wanted to talk with you before I left you here.”

“Okay.”

He placed his hand on my shoulder. “I haven’t known you for a long time, but I’ve seen the way my son looks at you. I almost decided not to bring you this morning. I was worried you’d get hurt or worse, and it would break Ash’s heart.”

“What made you change your mind?” I asked.

He gave a small laugh. “It was Ash. He came to me early this morning. I told him that I was going to tell Spear that I wasn’t going to take you, but he told me that I should. He said that you were so stubborn that you’d only find another way if I didn’t. He asked me to look after you.”

“You can’t,” interjected Morganna. “The Goblins want us to come alone. I don’t know why they only want one tribe at a time—maybe they are afraid we’ll break into war right in the middle of their underground town—but we promised that we wouldn’t come with another group.”

“I understand that,” he replied, “but I owe it to Ash.”

“You’ve got no armor. You don’t even have any clothes,” reasoned Morganna. “How will you be able to protect us?”

It was true that Morganna and I had dressed for this. We were both kitted out in the best protective clothing that the dragons had to offer and most importantly, I still had my sword. Fiere only had the shawl I’d given him.

“I’m a dragon, remember? I don’t need clothes. I’ll follow you up the rest of the way and keep out of sight.”

“No,” I shook my head. “You’ve been ill once. The longer you are in your dragon form, the more likely you are to become ill again. I couldn’t bear it if you became ill because of me. Once we are done with the Goblins, we’ll head back down the mountain. I have a flare in my backpack. I’ll set it off once we get close to home so someone can fly up the cliff to get us.”

His face looked pale, his forehead clammy. “But...”

“But nothing, You’re already getting sick. I can see it. Now get back down the mountain before you become too ill to shift back.”

He nodded. Just before he hid behind the tree again, he called out to me. “Shoot that flare if you’re in trouble. I’ll make sure someone comes and rescues you.”

“I will,” I promised, however I had no intention of needing to be rescued. I’d spent enough time having people look out for me. It was about time I did something by myself. Okay, not exactly by myself. I had Morganna, but I knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t overprotect me like the others would.

Fiere disappeared behind the tree. I heard the disgusting yet distinctive sound of his bones grinding and cracking as he changed back into a dragon. It was a sound I’d never get used to as long as I lived. His wings unfolded and he took off, leaving only my shawl behind. Morganna and I watched him fly away until he was only a speck.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” I asked Morganna, turning around and looking back up the trail. Flying the pair of us up here had obviously taken it out of him.  

“Hopefully he’ll be able to glide back down to the village and shift there. I think he’ll be alright. Come on, let’s get a move on. I don’t want to be out here all day.”

It was a calm day, but cold so high up in the mountains. I wrapped the shawl over my shoulders and began the hike to the Goblin city. It took us longer than the twenty minutes we had planned to walk. The combination of the cold weather and rocky ground beneath our feet slowed us down. It didn’t help that we’d landed lower than we planned to in the first place. 

An hour and a half later I could finally see the door ahead of us. Once again, it looked abandoned, a trick of the Goblins to make people think that there wasn’t anyone there. 

I sat on a boulder and pulled a bottle of water from my pack. We’d both traveled light, expecting to only be out for the day, and had only brought a couple of bottles of water each. I unscrewed the top and handed it to Morganna. She took a swig and handed it back.

“Are you alright?” she asked as I gulped down the rest of the bottle. 

The truth was, I’d felt better. I ached much more than I should for such a short walk, and even though I’d mostly healed from the burns, my skin was still delicate in some areas and was not being helped by the thick, protective leather clothing we were wearing.

Instead of admitting that, though, I took a deep breath and nodded my head. I didn’t want her to think I was weak.

“Come on.” I stood and packed the empty bottle back in my bag. Just then, a flash of red caught in the corner of my eye. I whipped my head around to see a red dragon circling above us. 

“Ash!” I hissed. He couldn’t hear me as he was too high above us, but I couldn’t shout lest the Goblins hear me. 

When he landed, he dropped something from his mouth which I recognized as his clothes, then quickly turned into his human form and pulling on his clothes. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “I’ve just sent your father home and now you’re here. Don’t you trust me?” I felt angry with him. When I’d left, he’d been totally fine with me coming up the mountain. Well not fine exactly, but I didn’t expect him to follow me. 

“As soon as you were out of sight, I panicked. I’m sorry. I do trust you and I know you can look after yourself, but I thought I’d come for back up.”

“What if you become sick, too?” I huffed. “Your father was looking ill.”

“I’m fine.”

“Ok, just stay here, then. Morganna and I will go up to the Goblin city. We’ll shout to you if we get in trouble. For goodness’ sake, stay out of sight.”

He nodded and sat down behind a boulder.

“He just cares about you, you know,” Morganna said to me once we were out of Ash’s earshot. “Don’t blame him. He loves you, that’s all.”

“Hmm,” I grumbled. “How would you feel if Alpha popped out from behind a bush right about now?”

“Oh, I’d kill him,” she replied with a sly grin. I snorted with laughter.

The door was still hanging from its hinges, so we stepped into the tunnel that would take us into the Goblin Kingdom.

It was quiet. Too quiet. It reeked of Goblin trickery. 

“Krikor!” I shouted out down the tunnel. My voice echoed back to me. 

  The tunnel ended, opening into the large cavern I’d seen before. It was empty. There was not a Goblin in sight.

“Where are they?” I asked. The usually busy city was now silent except for our own footsteps. “Hello!” I called out. Again my voice echoed, but this time it was much louder, reverberating off the cavern walls. 

“Check the buildings,” said Morganna, pointing at the holes in the wall of the cavern which I remembered to be rooms cut out from the rock. 

I went one way as she went another. She took the small restaurant I’d eaten in the first time I’d been here. I climbed a long set of stairs that led me almost all the way to the roof of the cavern before coming to a balcony. I turned and looked out into the cavern. I could see the whole place from up here. The buildings cut from the rock and the exit to the left, the tunnel to the mines in front and below me, and the rest of the cavern disappearing into the darkness to the right. Behind me was an open doorway. I stepped through it into the darkness. Once my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I saw a number of closed doors leading from the tunnel. I opened the first one to find a small room with a tiny bed. This was where the Goblins slept. I checked the next room. It was exactly the same.

I didn’t need to continue down the corridor to know that this was their sleeping quarters. I also didn’t need to search further to know it was deserted. The beds hadn’t been slept in for days and there were no personal effects. I opened a wardrobe door to confirm what I already knew. The wardrobe was empty. The Goblins were gone.

“Julianna!” I heard Morganna shouting. I dashed back to the balcony to see her standing below, just outside the restaurant. “The place is deserted,” she confirmed when I got back down to her. “We should have let Ash come with us after all. Do you think we should search the place?”

“What for? If they’ve gone, they’ve gone. They seem to have taken everything with them. Even the bedrooms are empty.” 

“Hmm.” Morganna walked away from me slowly. She looked around her as if searching for something, but I couldn’t say what. I followed her to the entrance to the mines. I’d never been down there before; the thought of it unnerved me. The small bit of light that flooded into the cavern through holes in the ceiling didn’t quite reach down here, and once again I found myself walking in the dark. I followed the sound of Morganna’s footsteps in front of me, wishing I’d brought a torch with me. 

As if reading my thoughts, Morganna clicked her fingers and the tunnel lit up.

“What just happened?” I asked, finally seeing down the tunnel.

“I got sick of walking in the dark and decided to use some of my magic. I have so little of it left and hate to waste it, but at the same time, I don’t want to break a leg by tripping over anything.” 

The light flickered and went out. Morganna clicked her fingers again, illuminating the tunnel. Just as quickly, the light was extinguished again.

“That’s strange,” Morganna remarked.

“You’re out of magic?”

“No. I’ve got enough to last me a bit longer. This is something else. It’s as if magic isn’t working here.”

“Well, you’d better hurry up and get it working,” I said, gripping hold of the hilt of my sword, “because I can hear something and I think it’s coming this way.”